Update:Would people believe an Embryologist?

Update: For those unfamiliar with basic biology here is a layman’s version of DNA (the core of your existence) and how it is created. In addition, courts have already declared a human embryo a human being. This decision will stand because of the science backing it. More here. – end update

I know High School biology can be a tough subject for some people, but the idea being run around Republican circles now is a disaster in the making. That idea is to support the killing of a human being for their spare parts (which have not formed yet, but if we get the materials and force the cells to do our bidding all is good). Look folks, I am as mad as any independent at the Republicans, they squandered a lot – including a two term Presidency. The confidence in Reps collapsed nation-wide the exact same way it collapsed here in VA: through infighting and paralysis. VA was a deep red state until Reps started fighting and then holding everything hostage. They have been booted out. No one tolerates impotent squabbling for long. But this latest idea is even worse!

I am not religous anymore, I do not attend church. So I come by my opposition to embryonic stem cells because the science is clear – the human being is created at conception and it doesn’t matter at which stage you destroy it, or whether you do it inside or outside the womb, the destruction is of a human being. So if the Republican party will not stand up for life then this country must trulybe lost. When Bush had surrounded himself with the children who resulted from adopting embryos (also out of the womb) I thought the public would finally get it. But apparently this subject (which is as simple as 2+2=4) is too hard for people to get their heads around. It really is simple.

Each individual is defined by their genetic code (it is not their complete essence – but it identifies the individual uniquely). It is their blue print. The code determines hair color, eye color, sex and much more. One blueprint is copied in all your cells. Just one – yours. That blue print is the combination of your biological mother’s and father’s blueprints, and it was created once – for all of time. The blue print is created at conception when the sperm and egg integrate two halves of the parental DNA to create one new copy.

And this new human being with their new and completely unique DNA is easy to identify through the DNA itself. Because the new human’s DNA is different from the parents – very different. It stand apart since it is the combination of two unrelated individuals. Since every cell in your body has a copy of your DNA, science can detect foreign DNA from other organisms present (humans are organsims, so are bacteria and viruses). The very same tests we use in courtrooms across this country will show that a son in his mother’s womb is not part of the mother but a separate human being. The easy distinction to identify is the sex. Obviously a woman’s body will not contain a male’s cells (excluding rare genetic defects).

Those calling for the destruction of an embryo think the term ’embryo’ defines a form or class of life – like cell, limb, organ. But it does not. Elemental biological structures like cells, limbs, organs do not have an ’embryonic’ stage. The words ’embryo’ and ‘fetus’ define a stage in an organism’s life. The ‘organism’ is the individual of any species. Complex beings like humans have all sorts of elemental structures like blood cells and tissue and organs and limbs. But these are parts of the whole individual. Taking stem cells is literally taking away the organism’s limbs and organs and tissues. The cells being robbed from the young human are the precursors to that young human’s organs. That is why scientist want them. They want to complete the maturation process outside the human being – so they can market them as a cure.

Does it matter when science steals a body part to make money? No – of course not. It doesn’t matter if the lungs are yanked before they are even lung tissues, or as the lung tissues are first forming in a ‘blob of cells’. The lung tissue is required for survival and therefore the removal at any stage means death.

Right now I am not interested in being aligned with Republicans. I am a Bush Conservative. But two things could make this estrangement permanent. The first is supporting the killing of humans for their parts. I say this as one deep in science with a similarly deep respect and awe for life. The second problem I have is the treatment of illegal aliens by the far right. In both instances the vaulted Republican cause for ‘sanctity of life’ is shown to be a pathetic charade.

But Embryonic Stem Cell Research kills people – that is a scientific and legal fact that can be proven over and over again. Sadly it is also medical snake oil, because the Frankensteins have not yet figured out how to control the stem cells to build body parts outside the human being instead of the whole person as an integral element of the human being. That is why Embryonic Stem Cell Research fails. If they could sever the head and grow a brain in the lab I think they would do it. Fact is, that is basically what they want to do. A head is an appendage, the brain an organ – so what does it matter when you steal it from the human being?

These modern Frankensteins need to force the stem cells to not build the human being they were programmed to build. They need them to form only parts of the human being they were designed to create. That is the goal of Embryonic Stem Cell Research. Ask any scientist involved. Left alone, the stem cells create every organ and tissue and cell type in the human body. Recall that is why the scientists want them so badly. This is clear as day.

When did we come to the uneducated and uncivilized stage where we could take a human, pull it apart and force the biological machinery to do something so unnatural? This is not the path to winning elections. I doubt you can even retain a soul and do this.

Update:: Recall the word ‘fetus‘ is a stage in development that applies to many animals. It is not a species and is not some building block of an organism. Many animals go through the fetal stage.